DR Congo rebels ready for talks

Leader says he is ready to negotiate with government ahead of talks with UN envoy.

16 Nov 2008 03:17 GMT

Obasanjo is expected to hold talks with Nkunda soon[AFP]

Obasanjo met Joseph Kabila, the country's president, in a bid to stop fighting between government troops and rebel forces.

After meeting Kabila in the capital Kinshasa, Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president, travelled to Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, where he said he would hold talks with Nkunda, who heads the National Congress for the Defence of People (CNDP).

Obasanjo said earlier on Saturday that Nkunda had telephoned him last week and "explained that he is full of expectations for us to meet and talk face to face".

"Nobody can say for certain what he wants ... but I will get authentically from him what he wants," Obasanjo said.

Meeting planned

Bertrand Bisimwa, a spokesman for the CNDP, said a meeting between Nkunda and Obasanjo had been planned and should take place later on Saturday or on Sunday.

Obasanjo could see Nkunda in the rebel stronghold of Rutshuru, about 75km of Goma, he added.

There are fears the country could slide back into a ruinous war such as the one in 1998-2002, that drew in more than half a dozen African nations and reduced DR Congo to rival fiefdoms.

Fighters backed by Uganda and Rwanda seized vast swaths of territory rich in coffee, gold and tin in the east. Angola and Zimbabwe sent tanks and fighter planes to back DR Congo's government in exchange for access to lucrative diamond and copper mines to the south and west.

Eastern Congo has been unstable since millions of refugees spilled across the border from Rwanda's 1994 genocide, which saw more than 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus slaughtered.